Passports and Toothbrushes

In Richard's first post, he commented that I have been reminding him that all we really need are passports and toothbrushes. In good news, we now have our passports.

Some months ago we realized that we needed to get our visas for India ahead of time--they are one of the few countries we are visiting that do not issue visas at the border. So we filled out the forms and, with some trepidation, mailed our passports to the office in San Francisco. Almost immediately we got a phone call, asking for clarification. It seems that Richard had indicated he is a writer (one has to admit to a profession), and someone in the visa office decided this meant he was a journalist.

Richard's protestations not withstanding, after several forms, letters emails and phone calls, we were assured that Richard would only be granted a journalist visa, not a tourist visa, and, more importantly, if the visa were granted at the time, it would have expired before we ever got to India (tourist visas are good for 6 months, journalist visas are only good for 3). So, with even more trepidation, we asked them to hold our passports until we were within the 3 month window. Once the timing looked safe, we called and asked them to process the passports. Which they did, quickly and efficiently.

The passports arrived back home yesterday. Funnily enough, Richard was granted a 6 month tourist visa, not a journalist visa, so all of the waiting and angst was for nothing.

But in good news, we now have them. And we all have toothbrushes.